AcedmySTAY is a nonprofit in Sacramento, California which provides free housing to former foster youth while they go to college or trade school. In 2024, CJ won a CARB grant to build a large community garden at AcademySTAY.

In 2025, AcademySTAY became the first community garden to host a node of the Cyberpony Express.

AcademySTAY Community Garden

This solar-powered Cyberpony Express node leverages Meshtastic and LoRa to provide free, resilient, off‑grid, end‑to‑end encrypted communication to people in the surrounding community, as well as across repeaters as far as San Francisco to the Central Valley. This will continue to operate during disasters and facilitate vital communication.

Diagram of Bed Layouts

Bed 1A

Bed 1A was originally planted in spring of 2024 with salad greens in the bed and raspberries on the trellis. The raspberries are doing great, but the bed had to be temporarily removed to work on plumbing underneath. When it was rebuilt, volunteers planted a variety of tomatoes in the bed.

Bed 2A

Bed 2A has a wisteria on the eastern side which is climbing the pergola. The western side has boysenberries which spent their first year climbing and getting established on the trellis. We are very excited for our first big harvest this year! The bed was originally planted with salad greens including thousands of seeds of spinach, kale, arugula, chard, and lettuce. Currently it’s all still bolting and laying down thousands of new seeds which will be sprouting soon.

Bed 3A: Peppers

This bed has serranos, jalapeños, jumbo jalapeños, bell peppers, and a Meyer lemon tree on the trellis which we have begun to espalier. The trellis also has sugar snap peas.

Bed 4A

Bed 4A was all pumpkins and spaghetti squash. Currently, the only thing left is the sugar snap peas on the eastern side, and the Vitis grapes on the trellis which spent their first year mostly growing and producing just a little. We are excited for a bigger harvest this year!

One student during intake requested watermelons which might be perfect for this bed.

Bed 5A

Bed 5A was originally planted with half a dozen vergolagas, an important ethnic food in Latin culture. We are hopeful that many of the seeds they dropped will sprout this season and give us a big harvest. We have also had requests for epazote.

Shiso Sprouting

Special Note: The shiso is just sprouting on the western trellis. These are an awesome seasonal plant which drops a ton of seeds. A lot of them are also sprouting in the gravel and will need to be transplanted to the bed so we can enjoy their delicious tortilla‑sized leaves as veggie wraps.

Bed 1B

Bed 1B was planted with thousands of seeds of salad greens including kale, lettuce, spinach, chard, and arugula. Marigolds were put in along the south side by the fence, and raspberries on the trellis to the eastern side of the bed. These are currently wrapping up their bolt and dropping thousands of new seeds into the bed for the coming season.

Bed 2B

Part of the intake process for students who are moving in includes a conversation about what they want us to plant in the garden, as it relates to their identity. This bed is where we have planted most of the requests by students identifying as Asian. Asian Pear and Persimmons are planted in the tree planters. Shiso is planted on one of the trellises in the back.

Bed 2B was eggplants and bok choy. The bok choy is currently bolting and dropping thousands of seeds into the bed for the coming season.

The trellis to the eastern side of the bed has an espalier of six types of apples.

Bed 3B

Bed 3B is planted with foods from Black cuisine, including okra. We collected hundreds of seeds from some of the mature plants at the end of last season and sowed them back into the bed for this season. At some point, someone also planted several other types of plants here.

Bed 4B

Bed 4B is planted with native wildflowers to attract and nourish pollinators. Many of these plants are illegal to pick or remove, so enjoy their beauty but don’t touch. The trellis to the east has pink currants which just put out their buds and started growing for the season. These are also called champagne grapes.

Bed 5B

Bed 5B has beets, lettuce, cabbage, and other types of salad greens and root vegetables. The trellis has the same shiso getting started which will climb the trellis and provide delicious tortilla‑sized wraps in the form of its large leaves.

Bed 1C

Bed 1C is just Albion strawberries. These are an everbearing variety which will produce lots of fruits year‑round. Last year, we pinched all the flowers so that these would just focus on sending out a lot of runners to start new plants. They have fairly well filled in at this point and we already have a lot of fruit getting started.

Bed 2C

We bought a very large rosemary bush to start this bed out, so that we will always have lots of rosemary for cooking! This bed is also planted with hundreds of garlic and onion seeds, as well as several basil plants which dropped lots of seeds for this year. The northern edge of the bed has dill plants which prefer the shade of the basil but they are still holding on for now.

Note: Next to the dill is a protected California Poppy which arrived on its own and is illegal to pick or remove.

Bed 1D

Bed 1D has a persimmon tree which is doing nicely. It was also planted with marigolds, zucchini, and cucumber but these mostly died back at the end of last season.

Bed 2D

Bed 2D is planted with an Asian Pear tree surrounded by countless, beautiful native wildflowers.

Bed 3D

Bed 3D is planted with a Fuji Apple tree surrounded by countless, beautiful native wildflowers, as well as some Spanish lavender.

Bed 4D

(Photo coming soon)

Bed 4D is planted with a donut peach tree which has already produced some fruit, but really is just getting started. This was surrounded by squash which has mostly died back at the end of the year.

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Lorekeepers' Guild - Cyberpony Express - Nodes